Columnist Susan Snyder: It’s time to play it safe

Friday, July 5, 2002 | 8:57 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

With nobody home in the valley's only trauma center, there's only one recourse for us average lugs.

Don't do anything dumb.

Don't drink and drive. Don't drink and boat. Don't leave your kid locked in the car.

Wear a helmet to ride a bicycle, skateboard, scooter or skates. Wear a life jacket. Wear your seat belt. Be vigilant at the swimming pool.

Don't shoot each other.

"Remind readers that as of (Wednesday) at 7 a.m., there won't be doctors waiting to save their lives when drunks run into cars, bikes and walking folks -- likewise for drivers traveling unbelted," Erin Breen, executive director of the Safe Communities Partnership, wrote me in an e-mail this week.

"If ever there was a time to be diligent about safety in Las Vegas, this is it," Breen wrote. "I'm terrified of what our fatality numbers are going to look like now. They already are so bad it's scary."

Think. People who don't get hurt don't need a trauma center. Injury is preventable.

Nevada's legal limit for intoxication is .10. Under those guidelines, the America West pilots arrested in Florida this week wouldn't have been considered legally tanked here.

Good thing the Federal Aviation Administration has its own zero-tolerance standards, eh? Our state legislators haven't been willing to impose tougher blood-alcohol limits.

Must be bad for business, or something.

Apologies to NASCAR fans.

On second thought ... nah. Going to hold you all guilty by association.

It seems your brethren in Daytona Beach, Fla. (a veritable hotbed of keen, intellectual acumen) have their leather jackets in a wad over a 4-month-old Nubian goat born with a birthmark shaped like the No. 3.

That would be the same number immortalized by the late NASCAR racing legend Dale Earnhardt, who died in a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500.

The owner of Li'l Dale (that would be the goat) told the Associated Press, "I've seen people take pictures and get tears in their eyes."

Might be sentimental reasons. Might be ripe in the barn because of Florida's summer heat (and humidity). Hard to tell.

But a goat? The guy was a racing legend. Can't folks do better than a goat?

Looks like politicians in Nevada and Utah are holding off on giving us a chunk of the Beehive State.

Dang.

West Wendover's city council members decided to do a bit more study on the prospect of moving Nevada's state line east a bit and merging their town with Wendover, Utah. The Nevada-Utah border separates the two.

West Wendover has the liquor stores, casinos and hookers. Wendover has, um, well, you know -- Utah.

Officials in both states had hoped to put the question on the November ballots. But the proposal had to be completed by mid-July, and a study of how the merger would work won't be finished until September.

So no vote can happen before the June 2003 city elections. Some Utahns have said they are relieved, as they aren't keen on the idea.

It's not because Nevada is a bad influence. It's because they're afraid the measure will say no casinos can be built on the Utah side of town.